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RAOC Gazette - page 251

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Full title RAOC Gazette
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Publication date 1978
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Early date 1978
Late date 1978
Transcription Training Centre
SCHQOL OF ORDNANCE
XHH School Cross Country Team (you either run or play golf
here—when you are not working) entered the Training Centre
event and came a creditable third. The effervescent Captain
Ted Walcroft, in between lectures, finished third but even this
fine effort was topped by Lance Corporal Peter Knox who led
the field home in twenty nine minutes and ten seconds. Captain
Dudley Ells finished in fifteenth place and Captain Brian
Nimick completed the scoring in twenty seventh place.
We welcome to the School Major Frank Warren from
Berlin and W02 Ian Major from Bicester. We wish them
well and are sure they will enjoy the job. We have bid a sad
farewell to Keith Mentzel but as he has only crossed the road
10 the Training Centre Headquarters we console ourselves at
(he fact of seeing him only slightly less frequently,
The Commonwealth and Foreign Ordnance Officers Course
have now left us and headed oft: to all points of the globe
carrying with them, we hope, the accumulated knowledge to
apply in their own countries.
APPRENTICES COLLEGE
B COMPANY, Apart from the normal training programme,
October provided us with the annual ' Mob Exercise * and a
delightful weekend at Browndown Training Camp near Gosport
The * Mob Exercise' came and went virtually without incident,
wi!h lessons to be learnt on all fronts.
Photo Captain M. E, Parsons,
B Company of the Apprentices College board HMS Victory at
Portsmouth.
The high spot proved to be the trip to Browndown, which
included a * Walk in the New Forest' (apologies to Horst Jan-
kowski) and a visit to Nelson's flagship HMS Victory at Ports-
mouth. A brief conversation overheard in the New Forest
between an officer of this Company (in combat clothing) and a
civilian, displaying all the trappings of someone ex-service,
went as follows:
Civilian—EEOOOOOH are you chaps soldiers?
Officer's reply—No, we've just got nothing else to wear I
Civilian—-Are you in the Guards?
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
LIFE at the Academy seems to be all work and
no play as there are no overseas exercises taking
place for the industrious staff clerk to disappear
on though Staff Sergeant Pete Harrison and his
crew are busy preparing for the exercise in Cyprus
for the Cadets. We have a few moves in the
pending tray—Staff Sergeant Ian Munro of G
Branch is doing overtime on his Spanish ready
for his next job in Columbia. Staff Sergeant
George Steven (of AQ fame) has just started a
* bricks and mortar * resettlement course in
preparation to becoming a civilian early next year and Sergeant
ous Curry is packing ready for his posting to Academy Head-
quarters leaving Old College in the capable hands of Lance
Corporal Ken Robson until a replacement arrives after
Christmas. In New College Corporal Bill McClernon is soon
off to the bright lights of Berlin and Staff Sergeant Pete
Harrison eagerly awaits the arrival of Corporal P. Harrison
(two in one office?). Corporal Bronco Lane took Pete at his
word when told to get his finger out and had to spend time in
hospital having the damage repaired. Lance Corporal Lee Doel
is presently undergoing the rigours of the RPC course and will
no doubt be challenging the Guards on his return. We have
two budding CQMSs in Privates Bob Day and Andy Price having
spent a week on exercise in that role (the multi-purpose staff
once more). In Victory College Sergeant Ron Can* and his
able assistant Corporal Pete Taylor (also to leave for civvy
street in the near future) are telling all how busy they are though
no one is taking much notice. All that remains is to say that
Major lim Houseman is still here.
Northern Ireland
HEADQUARTERS
RAOC
WHO writes THE GAZETTE notes? asked
the l incoming CRAOC having completed
his coup * which included Chairman of
The Association Football Committee
(Whether he liked it or not) and an interest
in cricket (which our intelligence tells us
he is pretty good at).
The question produced one of those
tense silences we have all experienced
when a volunteer to perform the duties of
Mess Secretary is asked for, we noticed one or two officers shut
their eyes in the hope that it made them invisible! Some slid
under their desks and the RO, in the best Ken Dodd manner,
stopped ironing the cat. The job did not change hands and
here we are again for what must be the ninety sixth time faced
with producing the chronicle from Northern Ireland.
One way of shedding THE GAZETTE note writing job is to
continually make rude remarks about somebody else; with this
in view we have had under close observation Captain John
Withers who sits at his desk blowing the odd wiff from his pipe
and occasionally moving a file from his in tray to his out tray.
This method of working always has reasonable results because v
on the law of averages, only seventy per cent of the files thus
moved come back. So far he has not made one false move and
we think he must have been well briefed by his predecessor—
an event remarkable in itself 1
Major Tim Proratt is playing his new game ' hunt the calor
gas cylinder'; we heard him remark that they, the cylinders, must
be in the great mythical storehouse in the sky, where furniture
abounds, but never becomes earthbound. Makes us turn lyrical:
Tnere's a Storehouse in the Sky far away
Combat Sups are sure to find it, some sweet day
and we give the lot to ASU East and West
and just rely on them to do the rest
(to the tune of Goldmine in the Sky, and
with to the tune of Widdicome Fair)
Len Davies
Bob Scott
Joe Mallett
Bill McCluggage
Alex Mitchell
The ASAs
and the clerks and the others and all
and the clerks and the others and all.
Our last months remarks about Lisbum football team must
have spurred them to action, as our latest information from
Captain (Goalkeeper) Manners is that they have won their last
three matches, and as for the goals against ' They were offside
of course/ Furthermore there is no connection with the
winning streak and the discipline metred to the wrongdoers
by the new Chairman mentioned above.
Our Chief Clerk, Staff Sergeant Mayes, suffered a car
breakdown when his Mazda refused to move the fuel into the
carburettor. (Moral: Buy a British Car—if you can get one).
Q Ops are having a frog Cull (too many ops). To end, we
would like to thank once again, all those who have contributed
to the SSAFA Christmas Market: the wives, ticket buyers, ticket
sellers, donators and donation collectors. Thank you once
again.
Ord nance Depot Northern Ireland
ONE wet day at the end of September the Depot was almost
brought to a stop by cries of * money for the children' as
PC and A in fancy dress dragged a small ammunition cart con-
taining Captain Alastair Shackleton in the guise of a big baby
around the Depot to raise money for the Save the Children
—- 205 —
Book number R0247